Board - Regular Meeting

Well, my parents were up at my dad text me. He's like, "Can you come up here?"

Calling the hospital again. functioning. You can almost get drunk. I don't mind, you know, having a couple beers.

All right. Good evening. I have 7:00. We'll go ahead and call to order the April 9th meeting. Please stand for to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Dear God, thank you for the opportunities you have given us this evening to guide our county and help us to make good decisions and help us to remember how blessed we are to be alive at this time. Amen.

Amen. Hey, roll call, please. Brown here. Carol Gold here. Edwards here. Grant. Greg here. Hardy here. McCormick. Mountain here. Man here. Miller here. Mitchell. Morris here. Price here. Richard here. Stroll here. Cipher. T here. Waford here. Wallace Wood

here. Okay, thank you. Move on to item three, discussion of vote to approve the minutes from March 12th's meeting. I have a motion on this, Miss Miller, Miss Matlock. Any discussion or questions on the minutes from last month? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say I.

Opposed? Motion passes four. Public body comment. Public body comment in the back. Thank you, chairman. As I I've explained for years, both to this county board and others, the county code outlines an obligation that the board has to establish time during regular and special meetings for citizens and employees to ask questions. The legislative intent is to get answers. This law is not the law regarding people's right to speak. It's separate and this board and pass continue to ignore it. I'd like to know why. For those that are interested, it's 55 ILCS 5/2-10001. On that point of what the law says, Ted, you've yet to answer my foyer request regarding public business with your private email. Do you intend on answering that request or not? No comment. I and others have asked you if you did in fact provide an endorsement letter to Don V. Bolts that included the county seal and use of your name as county chairman. Can you answer that simple question? Did you create that letter and send it? If not, where's the outrage that someone's creating an endorsement letter using your name? Did you create it and send it? No comment. Again, I default back to the county code about asking questions in a legislative intent. you choose to ignore the law. Again, the names for appointments to the ethics commission are the same as those appointed back in 2004. An ethics commission is supposed to hold hearings on ethics issues. The county had no record of statement of economic interest for those two individuals. Does anyone know what law outlines the requirement for filing a statement of

economic interest? It's found in the state ethics act. How ironic that this board would now consider appointing members to an ethics commission who not only did not file the required SEI as outlined in the ethics law when they were first appointed but also failed to comply with the most basic obligations such as OMA and FOYA training the last time they were appointed. The ethics ordinance outlines the makeup of the members of the ethics commission and is required to be two from one political party and one from another. Has anyone checked the voter status of the current members and the two being appointed? Anybody considering Gina Vanderhid a member of the commission according to what I was provided in my foyer request voted Republican in the last primary as did the two named people to be appointed. It looks like you're going to have three Republicans on the commission rather than the required split outlined in the ordinance. Have any members of this board read the actual ethics ordinance? While the ordinance indicates an affidavit is required from the appropriate members, the appointed members on this point, the county voting record provided for these members already proved the party affiliation. In regards to OMA training, thanks to the 12 members who actually complied with the law. I was confirmed today that 12 have. In fact, the other 10 have not. I'm curious why those have not. Why aren't you complying with the open meetings act training? It might help avoidance of further violations of OMA if you knew what the law actually was. My last point, and I wish she was here, but she's not, and I don't hear the outrage that your state's attorney is not here like you heard with the last one. Upon taking office, the state's attorney indicated she was turning the matter of a settlement payment paid to the former ASA over to the attorney general because she believed it was not legal. Requests

for such events resulted in nothing being provided to the attorney general. My question and a question of many citizens, some sitting on this board, what steps are being taken to recover those funds as it was alleged to be illegal? If nothing is being done, is anyone going to explain why not to the public? It's all I have. Thank you. Public comment.

Uh yes, Jake Cole. I think if Kirk has some complaints about something being done illegal, this isn't a court. This isn't the sheriff's office. I think if he has some complaints about the laws being broken, then he should file a complaint at the sheriff's office. I'm pretty sure the sheriff will be there tomorrow. I don't believe this board is to make that decision. If I had a complaint about someone and I thought they were really breaking the law, I guess that's where I file my complaint and get a lawyer who would be at the I don't know that maybe Kirk has permission or maybe he's supposed to be giving us legal advice, but I would question his authority. That's it.

Public body comment. Public body comment. Public body comment. Okay. Move on to item five, which is the annual presentation to the county board of UFI extension services offered as well as discussion of vote to approve the following. Item A, the annual agreement between Shelby County and the U ofi board of trustees with the U ofi extension office. In IFBB requests for continued funding from the Shelby County tax levy in the amount of $84,631, which is a 3% increase over last year. Have a motion on this item, please. Matlock. Have Jeff in the back. Good evening members of the board. I'm Jesse Straight with Illinois Extension County Director and with me tonight I have Christa Hul who is our 4 educator who serves our fiveount multicount wait multicounty unit which is comprised of five counties. Um and she helps give direction to our youth programming across the five counties and also supports our local extension office here in Shelby County with um Yolanda Nation who does the day-to-day support of our volunteers, our youth programs um and then also the workshops and of course the 4 fair that we have every year. Um but I am here this evening to give you an update and share some key details about what we've done in Shelby County over this past year. Uh I passed out a brochure that is our annual report uh for 2025 and some of the key highlights in there uh is that we've had 76 programs and served 5,613 individuals and we've also provided food and nutrition programming and that was previously referred to as a SNAPED program and it's now no longer SNAPED

and we've got the food and nutrition program but over this last year we were able to provide uh 28,461 lbs of produce into the food pantries in Chelsea County as well as um just over,200 lb of venison so lean protein into the food pantries and of course we did our eat move safe food booths at the food pantries as well and provided cooking classes and food and nutrition education. uh our health and family which has also changed from um consumer sciences to now health and family. We provided um 17 sessions and served 214 individuals in our brain health programs as well as um social connections workshops that we've provided. And I'm going to turn over the 4 highlights to Christa Hul.

Yes. So for age we've had 474 members. We had 109 sessions and 4,470 participants taking workshops and going into schools. So workshops continue to be very popular. We have a lot of participation with those. We've had an increase in school programming. We've introduced welcome to the real world which is a workforce development. It works on honing in budgeting skills for youth. And then 4 in this county continues to be in the top five in the state for membership. And then we invite you to join us at our fair this year. It's July 18th to the 22nd. And join us in celebrating our 4 members. And then again, we respectfully ask for a 3% increase in the appropriation for uh the local extension office. So thank you. Thank you.

Any questions or comments? Um, there are five counties. Yes, that make up our unit. Yes. Okay. Do all five counties contribute the same amount? No, it's not the same amount. It's based off of tax liies. And how much of that money that you receive goes to salaries? Oh, I do not have that figure um with me right now. Um, I have one problem that our budget is $82,166 and they're asking for over budget. This is for next year. Next year for next year. So, this would be for um July 1st.

Okay. Through June 30th, 2027. Anything else? Okay. Thank you. Okay. See none of those. Brown. Yes. Cole. Yes. Edwards. Yes. Greg. Yes. Hurry. Yes. Matlock. Yes. McCormall. Yes. Miller. Morris. Yes. Price. Yes. Pritchard. Yes. Stro. Yes. Katie.

Yes. Wford. Yes. Woods. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Move on to item six. Discussion of vote to approve the firearms authorization for Angela Durban, Shelby County Probation Officer. Motion on the side, please. I've got Mr. in the back, Mr. Morris in the front. I'm going to go ahead and read you a letter that was sent to me by Miss Wade. Um, good evening. I wanted to let you all know that Angela Durban has passed the ILSB mandatory firearms course, which is 40 hours. I have attached a copy of her certificate. I've also attached a signature form that allows her to carry in Shelby County. This was the final requirement for Angela to carry a firearm. I have her file, excuse me, I have in her file her officer appointment copy of her FOY card, request to carry acknowledgement and signature of understanding of the weapons policy, her psychological examination, physicians report, and now her training requirements. The resident circuit judge and chief judge of the fourth judicial circuit have already signed and approved her request to carry a firearm. I respect her request of the county board chair provide the final signature authorizing Miss Duran to carry a firearm. sign wave chief managing officer. Any questions, comments, discussion on this meeting here. Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say I. I opposed.

Motion passes. Move on item 7, which is discussion of vote to approve the fiscal year 27 section of the 5311 DOAP transportation ordinance be resolution authorizing the board chair to apply for 5311 grant funds the amount of 40 453,953 DOAP grant funds of $2,239,263 have a motion on the side please up front second Do you have anything to add this evening?

I don't. I just want to thank everybody for continuing to be so supportive toward public transportation. I think that's our main goal is to continue to build public transportation. It's been a um interesting interesting start. And thank you all for being so patient with me while we get all this um approved and going. And I'm very excited because we actually got a little bit more funding this year than we had in the past. So that's very positive for our program. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Okay, see none. Roll, please. Brown, yes. Yes. Edwards, yes. Hardy, yes.

Gray, yes. Matlock, yes. May, yes. Miller, yes. Morris, yes. Kry, yes. Richard, yes. Stroll, yes. Tate, yes. Walker, yes. Wood, yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Okay, thank you. Move on to item eight, which is discussion to vote to approve the following items. A supplemental engineering agreement for 087-334 in rural township estimated cost of $18,29.30 100% to be paid through township bridge program fund and item B. a 50-50 petition from Heric Township Highway Commissioner to replace a failing CMP pipe with a 72 in x 50t long CMP on 740 east north of CH13. Estimated cost will be $14,760 split 50/50 between the county and the township. Can I have a motion on these items, please? Miss Matlock and a second. Mr. Stroll, you're up.

Uh, thank you, sir. Um so item 8 A is for a supplemental engineering agreement as discussed in rural township. It is a bridge that is most of the way designed already. Uh it sat stagnant for a number of years due to a rideway issue. We were able to uh overcome that issue. We'd like to progress to be able to get that bridge reconstructed. Um 22000 is to get things up to date because of it sitting for so long. new policies, new uh standards that need to be updated and basically this is getting it up to date. So that is 8A and 8B is a 50/50 township inherit that is the pipe is getting very bad and going to fail sometime soon. We like to replace it before it does. So okay, any questions regarding those questions or discussion? Mr. just happened to work in general.

I just want to say thank you because safer. Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am. Sorry. Anybody else? Thanks, Mr. Please. Brown, yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. Mayhal, yes. Miller, yes. Force, yes. Price, yes. Richard, yes. Stro, yes. Kate, yes. Whoa, yes. Wood, yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. Move on to item nine, discussion and vote on ARPA obligation and payments to recode miscoded ARPA payments. Can I have a motion on the side, please? Miss Wood, have a second.

I'll second. Treasure Favor. Uh I sent you all a list, but we've had some payments that um were paid out of ARPA that were not on contracts that were reported to the federal government in the in the portal uh last April. Um I sent you the updated list today. The one of them, the sheriff has given me the line item to recode that payment. Uh probation Heather Wade has given me a line item to recode a payment that was a little bit over what had been obligated in the portal. Uh but the other payments uh the Christian Shelby uh JSB the text my government and the two performance services payments uh those were not reported to the uh federal portal last year. Um so they need to re be uh recoded reclassed. I would assume the general fund and we have payments for the auditors and the audit contracts were reported to the federal government and some of those payments have been paid out of the general fund and would need to be reclassed to be paid out of our butt so that I can complete the reporting to the federal government by April 30th. Um the portal closes May 1st so time is an issue. Okay. Any questions, discussion?

Yes, ma'am. Um, what do you have as the available money in our right now? As of today, $117. Okay. I have questions. Um, this is kind of an ongoing process and I've said before and I'll say it again. Doesn't matter who did the job. It was ill-fitted from the get-go. There was no direction. You get you got no direction. Other treasures got no direction. It was a moving target from the get-go. They changed the rules on what you could spend it for, etc. So, it made it difficult and really nobody had ever done this before. So, it was, you know, you had to figure out as you went along.

Actually, the county taxpayers paid uh Belweather $20,000 to advise the county and they've done a fantastic job doing what taxpayers paid them to do. They've given us,

but this this ARPA situation had not happened before. So it was kind of um let's just say it was probably ultimately it could have been planned better. Um my question to you is I we have emails we get from here. Um the first one is from 226 to 26. 63,000 remain in ARA. Um printed on the same day 65,000. Um then we have 11709. Um then we have uh an email where he asked to begin the meeting tonight and Tad said explain more about the um miscoding who coded them that sort of thing. Then um on the 7th in our packet we got remaining before recode 223,39020 and remaining after recode 331,5167. Then at 3:20 today, we saw some performance services payments. Um, and about 25 minutes later, we saw the same report with an indication it was a $9,000 change. The $9,000 didn't come across somehow, but I have taken time to review what was turned into the federal government. And although we approved performance services by the end of 24 with a contract with a vote, it didn't show up on the report.

I was never provided that contract.

Okay, here's the deal, Erica. You're an adult. You're a professional. You work in the same building that we all come and go from every meeting. You knew with the previous board where this meeting room was. You know the time. You know the what's on the agenda. It's not a secret that this is where the meetings happen. and you always know what date and time these are. I've asked you repeatedly, other board members have asked you questions and then we get numbers that are off $300,000 in 6 weeks. So you can get the contract, but we voted on it. The contracts were signed. It this not my it was not my job or my responsibility to chase it down on January 14th at 25. I sent Chad Manningh Hall an email and said, "I've received no documentation for ARPA money that was contracted. I have to provide signed copies of contracts as well as meeting minutes where monies were voted on. I cannot provide the correct ARPA reports to the federal government nor updated reports to the board without the appropriate documentation. Please provide all signed documents and approved meeting minutes as soon as possible." I didn't start receiving a lot of those until um early April. And then a lot of the stuff that was turned over to me was not signed and so it got returned to various department heads and then I got it returned to me with all of a sudden it was signed which fine great it's signed then it becomes an obligation on uh April 25th I received the two audit contracts from the county clerk who she was you know requested to send it to me when the report had to be in in the portal by the 30th. So, I mean,

so you're saying you're not you're not responsible for anything, for looking for anything ever, but we have to deliver it to you on hand. Is that what you're saying? I it's a simple email, attach, and send. And there were there were some department heads that it was absolutely not a problem at all. If they had projects, they sent me the documentation. So, you know, we can sit here and we can argue this is the exact reason that audits in Shelby County are behind is because we can't send emails when somebody requests documentation. I think I've requested documentation more than a couple times.

Yes, you did request a lot of uh documentation from me. I'm not the keeper of the county records. And I think this is a lot of the problem is you seem to be extremely confused about the responsibility of the county clerk, the county treasur, and what the county board's responsibility is. It was not my responsibility to budget nor spend ARPA. It was simply my responsibility uh to work with bellweather to uh report to the federal portal. And who signs that signature at the bottom of the federal portal? Who signs that? Who's the last person? Me. That's you. That's right. Who signs a second signature on those checks that you got a report from Jessica? The state attorney uh send another email.

No, no. Answer the question. Okay. Point. Let me just read for the public record. I have it here. Um, and I think I should, if you haven't, I did file a complaint uh with the state's attorney for retaliation for a whistleblower um because I'm tired of being harassed and I've been harassed. Yesterday, the state's attorney sent the full board an email and I'll read it for the public record because of harassment from Christine Matlock. Um that's this is not your main yelling at me. Excuse me. Actually, this is my time. I No, I was speaking and I'm Does this have to do with the agenda item this far?

Yes, it does. Because she has accused me of not turning over documentation. I can't turn over something I don't have. And then I'm accused of I should have known because my name goes on a check. The state's attorney sent out to the full board. This is This is about checks that the state's attorney sent out. This is not Germaine to Yes, it was Germaine because she just accused me of I'm going to read this. I don't mind reading for you. I don't mind reading it for you. If you would like to get it out there in a different spot, I'll even read it as No, because I'm the one that requested the agenda item for

but what you're about to read I read is not related to ARPA accused me in public of various things and my name this agenda item has to do with going to read in the public record because my name does go on the check. I'll read it for correspondence. No, I will read it right now because this is my agenda item and I will speak. Okay, but for the recording my right to speak in in line with what the agenda item has to do what you do with ARPA.

This was sent from the state's attorney, to the county clerk, to myself, to you as the board chair, to Terresa Bame as the vice chair, and to the full county board. I'm sending this to everyone so that we are all on the same page. The county procedure for processing claims and cutting checks is this. The county board approves a budget. Claims are submitted by the respective departments to the county clerk's office. The county board reviews and approves those claims and once approved, checks are processed, signed, and mailed. The only people reviewing claims for the uh reviewing claims are the county clerk. when the claims are received and the checks are written, the county board when the claims are approved, and to be more specific, that would be the finance committee that first reviews them and approves them, which Christine Matlock is on, and then they're approved at the each county board meeting by the full board. Then my name gets stamped on them and they return to the clerk and the clerk mails them out. Um, neither the treasurer nor the county clerk have authority over the spending of another elected official's budget after that budget has been approved by the county board. If the board wants to change the current process, they can look into doing that. But as it stands, the board approves the as it stands, the board approves the line items in the budget. The departments submit the claims. The claims are reviewed by the county clerk and county board and checks are cut. The treasur is required to receive and disperse funds and counter sign checks as required by the bank and county code. That's it. If you have any questions, please let let me know. Sincerely, uh, Ruth A. Woolery,

can you tell me where the art department was or not?

She just accused me and has accused me and harassed me in many emails of that I should have known what claims were paid out of ARPA. I don't see claims. I don't know who was paid out of ARPA. I get a report and that report tells me I need to transfer this much money from ARPA to general fund to cover claims. I need to transfer this much money from probation to general fund from any fund that we have to the general fund so that the AP claim checks are covered when they hit the bank. That's my job. That's my responsibility. I don't see claims. I don't know who's paid. I simply transfer the money. As a reminder, item nine is discussion and vote on ARPA obligation and payments to recode disco. So, can you clarify what it is that we're moving on these reports?

Well, the uh I I just said earlier that these payments, the payment to uh Christian Shelby JTSB, that contract was not reported to the federal government. text my governing was not reported in the two performance services contract. And then I put down there payments that um have been paid to the auditors that were coded out of the general fund could be recoded to ARPA so that you know we get the ARPA money spent the way it was obligated to be spent. And then we have some payroll that needs to be uh coded or covered as well. Yeah. In all fairness, I'm still trying to understand the spreadsheet or the the document. The items on the left side are what you're moving or you're moving or the ones recoded on the right side. the list that I just read to you on the left and then there's the total. Some of these payments were made in fiscal year 25. I've listed those there. The the sheriff that he already gained in the line item, the 35 33,590 was paid in fiscal year 25. It will need to be recoded out of the fiscal year 25 budget. Text my government was out of the 25 budget. It will need to be recoded out of a fiscal year 25 budget line item. The performance services payments uh were paid in fiscal year 26. They will need to be recoded out of the uh fiscal year 26 budget. And then the totals are there. It'll be $44,441.7 out of the 0 uh 25 fiscal year 200

$779.30 out of uh fiscal year 26. So, same scenario there with the uh audits total to be uh reclass 1384870 39,000 of that in fiscal year 25. Um fiscal year 26 is going to be the 99,48070. 9,000 of that is actually being paid tonight out of the general fund and that will be reported next year um to the federal portal. and then the 10,500 in fiscal year 25 per uh ARPA payroll 2,000 so far in fiscal year 26 moving forward the sheriff's um lump sum payments for ARPA need to be coded correctly and again just because I asked an email not answered These were coded by which office?

They're coded in the clerk's office. She's the accounts payable and payroll. I received nothing for payroll regarding our beta. And we discussed the audit claims.

Any other questions? Sir, Mr. I I I would like to see a forensic audit of AARPA with the the problems and the discrepancies and then with having these miscoded codes have to be changed. Yes, please.

I've requested a forensic audit in my office for two, three years now and I haven't received it. I've requested it numerous times. I've welcomed it and uh asked for ARPA money to be spent to do a forensic audit of my office because of all the false accusations that have gone on and I I wasn't uh I wasn't that that wasn't granted. So I would more than welcome a forensic audit of the ARPA money. It would be great.

I would like to say that was just uh alarming. Board member Matlock was given free reign to say what she wanted to say. Treasurer Fernhab was not clear by us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Oh, thank you.

I just I have one question about the ARPA and the balances. Um can can you explain why the differences of the numbers? Is there a clear explanation? Yeah, because it's a constant working on it and when I request, you know, invoices and look through the reports, it's constantly changing. And I was working with Bowweather today and the last one that I changed was because if I had $99,480 under fiscal year 26, but 9,000 of that that's being approved tonight will actually go on the 27 report. So, uh, the other page that had the totals, the one prior to that, which now has because it's the expenditures for 26, $249,263.70 if you all choose to reclass this. Prior to that, I had it 9,000 higher because it actually won't get reported until 27. simple explanation, but if you could all see the amount of paper that I received with no organization to it and constantly trying to put it together and make sure that everything's the way it should be, it it's it's a moving target. And in working with Chris, I was finally able to speak with Belleather this afternoon, late this afternoon, and we were working on it, going through it, both sets of eyes, um, to try to get as much information settled to make sure that stuff got done tonight because again, we're in a timeline. I sure would hate to see the county have to pay back $4 million because we can't follow rules and report in a timely fashion

and it's just confusing when you see a number and then the next week it's, you know, way way different. So, well, um I mean there were numbers there. The bank account's been 117, but you all get the ARPA fund 066 you get every month. Every month with the treasures report, if you go down that 90 page report, the 066 ARPA, you know, had the running total. So, you've gotten the reports. The the information is there. Nobody ever asked me a question about it or why numbers were here or there. So, I assumed everybody knew what what they were looking at.

And would you be will if somebody had a question if I if I were to come in and say, "Hey, can you explain how this got from here to here?" I could sit down and ask those questions with you. I I I would I mean, it's it's it's simple. It's the the expenditures that are paid. But you could you would sit down and I'm having trouble figuring out how to absolutely explain that. Absolutely. Thank you. Sir, this uh performance services was there a contract for performance services? Does anybody can anybody answer that? Sure. Let's see here. Anybody else?

Yeah, we signed a contract with performance services. Any other questions? I'll vote, please. Real quick, can you clarify what we're voting on? I really wish I could. Like, are we voting to allow the treasurer to move the funds?

She's saying board will have to provide the line item in the fiscal year 25 budget and the 26 budget. In our office, we don't reclass any expenditure just like the sheriff has provided me the line item. I've got that email. uh Heather Wade has provided it. Anytime we reclass any money in a budget, we have it in writing with a request from the department head or whoever's in charge of that fund before we touch a thing. So the county board, you all will have to once you vote to recclass recode. You need to provide the line items to the treasur's office of each of these payments and in that budget what line item you want it coded to in that budget. So a yes vote is saying we can it we're giving permission to recclass the codes. Yes. and a no vote says no, we are not going to allow the codes to be.

And if you don't, then you have to figure out with this other report where you're going to take money away from with the projects that that have been reported to the federal government, which covered the $4.2 plus million that we received. It was all obligated uh to the Treasury. If you're choosing to not recode and use contracts that were not reported, then you have to tell me what we're going to take money away from, what it's going to go to, and we'll have to amend uh the report that we filed last year. Okay. I just wasn't sure what the yes or no vote meant.

Can I ask a question? So in essence, if we vote no, we have the option to take monies from, let's say, the general fund and pay those people because we signed contracts with them. They're paid. They've been paid. Can I finish? We signed contracts with these people. Performance services was over half a million dollars. They've been paid about 200,000. We owe them roughly 300,000 off the top of my head. These people will be paid. That is our job. We don't have to like it. Um we don't have to argue about ARPA to get it done. It has to be done. So if we vote no, we can as a group determine if we're going to take money from the general fund from a general fund CD, which we have the money to make sure these people get paid. Is that correct? I apologize because I don't know if I can answer the question.

I know.

So, up to this point, it's my understanding. I mean, we haven't fulfilled the full obligation with performative services. So, they still have work to be done. Money's to be paid, but these other vendors projects have been paid. So, so they've not been paid. You're shaking your head. I mean the the the other spreadsheet there in what we've reported, we're still going to have $5,000 uh for the highway engineer salary that that is going to need to be paid out of ARPA money on 9126. That was a contract that you had. Um the report for the courthouse upgrades carpets and blinds uh that was obligated by the board. There's still $6,66.52 that's not been spent on that project. Uh computer equipment for the sheriff for a service antenna, there's $80 uh that was obligated out of that project that's not been paid. Don't know if that one's done. And that $80 can go down to the audit expense or wherever you choose to put it. Deep clean the courthouse. Uh the board obligated $29,750. We've paid $8,100. I have no idea if you intend to spend the $21,650, but if you don't, we can move that to the line item for audit expense. Um, and then in the payroll for the rest of 26, cuz this all has to be spent by 1231 to 206, the sheriff still has $7,500 lump sum to pay employees under theou for the union contract. I don't know if he intends to pay his employees that work. If not, it's out of the general fund. I really couldn't care less. But nonetheless, whatever you decide to do with that money, if you don't want to spend that, that can either be put into that can be put into the line item for the audit

expenses. And the bottom line is whether you pay the audit contractors or whether you pay performance services, um it's general fund money. It's it's general fund money. But if we if you choose that all of a sudden you're going to pay performance services with the remainder which we don't have ARPA money left and you were told to over obligate it in case invoices didn't come in by 123126 projects didn't get completed by 123126 so that the 42 plus million was spent you obligated it. is obligated and there was a contract that I just received last week that I had never seen, but the audit expenses that were reported in the federal quarter will more than deplete the ART money. I mean, there was only so much and whether you know whether you take money out of the general fund to pay the auditors or whether you take it out of the general fund to pay performance services. I mean it it really doesn't matter because there's only so much ARPA money and when it's gone it's gone. We do have through the end of 20 through the end of 26 reporting year which is March 31st or a actually it's April 30th sorry April 30th and 27 to amend. We could vote no. We could use the general fund and amend what we needed to amend later this year before the recording next spring. We have to amend it by April 30th of this year. I'm going to use one example just to see if I can get everybody to understand because I'm still sure there's confusion on what this I'm going to use the sheriff as an example because we aren't paying payroll

expenses anymore with our I'm going to try and break this down in the simplest terms to make sure we're all on the same page. So, this shows that you have 75 thou or $7,500 left that was obligated that likely will not be spent. Is that correct? I guess between the two of you, is that that's a sheriff question. That's I'm asking you for the definition.

He submitted to me. He submitted it to to Jessica last year and I theou for ARPA had those amounts in it. I don't know what he intends to do. He's either going to pay it out of the general fund and it's going to be reimbursed through ARPA, but it's what we reported to in the federal portal. On this example, and you highlighted $7,500 on your report for this example, what what is the proposal that's going to happen with that $7,500? What is the that number's there on your report? What is it that he intend to do with that money? What's your intent to do with that money?

I'm asking I want to clarify. I mean I can't stick the landing on this because it's incredibly confusing. This money was obligated for that line. Correct. Now were was this after the stop of the ARPA money? Did did we submit the claim as ARPA? Was it coded as ARPA for payroll? Yes. I I don't know. Liz said she saw nothing that said ARPA for the bonuses. Those bonuses. I think those bonuses were paid out of my budget. That's what I thought they were, too. Correct.

But they were submitted to me last year with this list that said this is what would be paid for theou that had been settled out of ARPA that were going to be paid out of ARPA. So, this is what was reported to the federal government because that was what was given to me to report in last year's reporting. Yeah. I don't The last bonuses that were paid I think came out of my budget, not money. But I'm saying you submitted to me that it was going to be paid out of ARPA and this is what I reported to the federal government. So, if you don't intend to, we can take it out that line item and we can move it over to the audit. This is what was submitted to me to pay out of ARPA.

So then is that what you're saying by recoding by doing that taking the money from the sheriff's boat bonuses and putting it in something else? Is that what you're calling recoding it? Yeah. I'm saying this was under just payroll put out of the budget, but I was told that it was going to be reimbursed with with uh the payroll, the general fund, you know, is reimbursed. And so that's what we did with, you know, the ungodly amount that we did with all the payroll with AARPA was reimburseed once it went through the payroll. This is what I was given and this is what I reported to the federal court.

So, so I don't know what you want to do. Quick question, just so I understand, when you're talking recoding, you want to basically kind of like rename it. No,

it has to go from one line item to another. With payroll, it simply gets reclassed. It should it there were pay types in payroll that were specifically ARPA so that reports could be given to the to the federal government that this was ARB you had to keep ARPA separate ARPA payroll payments separate from just general payroll which we always did and then the reports would be given and we in the treasur's office would reimburse the general fund for any ARPA payroll payment with the recode of these other payments. Uh like some of the um some of the uh audit payments were coded to general fund 001029 and then whatever the audit expense is. If it should have been covered by ARPA, it just simp simply gets reclassed from that general fund 001 029 and whatever the last five digits to the um 06601 and the project line item number is 50560 when we reclass recode then and it shows up. I mean if you print a report the auditors see it. I just had the auditors and in both in any audit we've ever done, they look for reclasses and then we have to provide them the documentation as to why it was reclassed, what it's reclassed for, which we can always do, but it just gets reclassed from a general fund to an ARPA account or from the ARPA back over here. But we have the documentation to provide to the federal government what we already told them we were going to be

spending it on. And I will add that and uh Tad Mayhal was on those emails and I sent them out to the full board earlier this week. Uh the guidance that we got from Belleather this time last year when we had to prove the obligated which they were very clear that it had to be it wasn't board action it was signed contracts um purchase orders or such. Um I forget what I was going to say but it had to be clear and the and the bellweather sent to us the language out of the treasury was they are going to vigorously not my words theirs review how these obligations are and expenditures. Chris with Bellweather and I worked, you know, pretty hard um making sure that we dotted every eye, crossed every tea so that Shelby County wouldn't get in trouble.

We reported what was given to me. So that's the only thing I can do. So to be compliant then do we need to recode these? If we are going to stay compliant with what was reported to the portal last April, yes.

Okay. because we reported the audit. I was given the psych audit contracts on April 25th. So Chris and I reworked the report. I filed the report on April 28th of last year. There's more than enough because that those uh sick audits and uh lauderbach total was sick itself was 315,000. Lauderbach was 290. what we put in that line item originally that was $217,939 and some change was because that that came in last. So we put in that project what was remaining of ARPA money to be spent. So the reason this changed Trisha is because and it went to 281,000 was because in the payroll line item which I had sent multiple multiple emails requesting when is the when is the contract going to be figured out? When are we going to stop paying? Because in April of last year, we paid we were still paying the ARPA premium pay to union and non-un employees in the courthouse in the county. FOP had already settled their contract. Theirs was done other than theou that covered these lumpsum payments. No one could give me direction as to when that uh ask me contract was going to be signed. When the ask me contract was going to be signed, the other employees were going to be done receiving it. That happened sometime in April. So that line item under payroll of 2025 which was at $122,000 some odd dollars was because at that point we were just estimating out to uh 12 21 and 26 because I didn't have

any clue when it was going to end. I could only estimate based on how much each payroll was because it ended and we are no longer paying that. You know that was 122. We actually moved 63,000 some odd dollars. I don't remember the other amount because we're no longer going to pay that. It's no longer obligated under that line item. We move that 63 plus,000 down to the 217939 and some change which makes that total 281069 which is what I'm saying again in that you know there's 1693 up in the state's attorney uh in that project you know these projects I don't know what's going on with the deep clean but it can be moved to something that's already been obligated in the federal for we have more than enough money in the Lauderbach and Sikitch contracts. ARP is gone. I mean, when we ch make these changes, if if you all decide to make these changes, we're going to have somewhere around $73,796 left. I mean, it's a moving target until we actually make those changes. I'm not going to guarantee any specific amount of money. Bless you. But, um, you know, it's somewhere around there. I guarantee you you're going to spend $73,000 plus dollars on an on auditors this year and the money's gone. It's gone.

Are there any accounts that are not ma'am? Ma'am, sorry. Yes. So bottom line is we need to recode this for all the numbers been thrown around. Bottom line is we need to have recoded to make our obligation to the federal government to work for that. That's bottom line pretty much. And so all the other stuff we've been talking about for 30 minutes means nothing. Absolutely nothing. Okay. So other than it's just more work for everybody. So the bottom line is we just need to have stuff recoded so it gets obligated to cover our bus with the federal government. Yeah. It needs recoded to fulfill the obligation that we've already reported.

But what I'm hearing is just our just our vote tonight won't satisfy what you need to do that. Well, and you vote to recode them and then I don't What does he need after that? I need somebody whether it's the budget and legislative to give me the line items that you're going to move it to the in the 25

fiscal year budget and the 26 fiscal year budget. That's I need the line items. I need something in writing before I reclass it because when the auditors do ask for it, we hand them the documentation where this department. So, I won't move them until I have that documentation. But before we could even go there, we just needed to get approval to when the board in November uh was given the number of how much they had to obligate. Um, was that a a number that we knew how much AR funds we had at that point when they voted, they were given a $1.6 million figure to obligate. Now, at that point, whenever that happened, y'all were told to over obligate, which when I talked to the state's attorney about this a couple weeks ago, she's like, they were told to over obligate. I said, thank you. I I know that. But again, over obligate because a we didn't know when payroll was going to stop. So had you not obligated more for the 122,000, you wouldn't have had something to to put in there. But again, Belweather advised, we obligated that. We're not going to use it. That can go to another. You know, that was a process that that was not my job. I was not It was not my responsibility to obligate. It's my responsibility to report. You were told to over obligate again so that in case you know bills weren't paid by the end of this year and but you did provide the $1.6 million number uh were when you were asked 1.6 million that you gave to the board to say this is roughly what we have. That

could have been where we were that day. Every month that we pay bills that that amount changes. And was that explained at that time? Because I wasn't when they obligated. I did not I I don't remember seeing any I any question I've ever been asked about ARPA. I've done my best to answer the question. So

So the 1.6 if you gave him 1.6 for that obligation, two weeks later it could have been down to 1.2. too. And if you if there was a county board meeting and we paid bills, absolutely. And at that point, we were paying uh payroll. So, that was a moving target. There were bonuses that were paid and you know, payroll being paid out of that or you know the various other out of this this here. I mean, we have spent $4.2 million. So every single board meeting when you all approve the claims which again I don't see claims all I get is a final number. This is what you need to transfer from the ARPA fund to the general fund to pay the bills. The finance committee and the board and the clerk see those claims. I don't see the claims once we transfer whatever amount from ARPA to the general fund, but but they're coded. I mean, the clerk's office codes any ARPA payment 066. That what kicks out the report so that we know how much money to transfer to the general fund. Just like if I'm going to transfer out of probation or I'm going to transfer out of the highway department, any of those funds, whatever's coded in the clerk's office, approved by the finance committee, approved by the full board, Friday morning, we get that report and we start transferring money. Uh, and again, you know, there's 56 funds in this county. So, I mean, that's a moving target every month. every single month.

So if you if if a number was given at 1.6 million, but then there was a county board meeting a week later and we spent 500,000, that's down to 1.1 million. I I mean I have to go back and look and see when bills were paid, but that's the way it works. Question roll call, please. Brown. Yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Yes. Hardy, yes. Mattlock, no. Mayhal, yes. Miller, yes.

Morris, yes. Price, yes. Richard, yes. Stro, yes. Tate, yes. Wford. Yes. Wood. Yes. Motion passes. 14 eyes, one nay. Move on. Item 10. Discussion. Vote to reappoint cops to consider approval to the ethics commission for a two-year term upon recommendation of the city attorney's office. Please Mr. Greor. Any questions?

I have questions. Do we have those affidavit? If you look at the code, it does say they're hereby created a commission to be I'm sorry, I can't known as the ethics commission of county of Shelby. The commission shall be comprised of three members appointed by the chairman of the Shelby County Board. um with the advice and consent of the Shelby County Board. No person shall be appointed as a member of the commission who is related either by blood or marriage up to the degree of a first cousin to any elected officer of the county of Shelby. No more than two members of the commission shall belong to the same political party at the same time such appointments are made. party affiliation shall be determined by an affidavit of the person appointed. So, I have I mean no problem with either one of these people being appointed, but do we have the affidavit? Because if not, I feel like we probably should table this until we do.

I'm not aware of an affidavit. Well, because we're going to be appointing something out of compliance for the ethics committee. Well, I mean, I mean, if that's not the definition of irony, I don't know what is. I don't know that there's any I don't know that that was provided for. No. So, maybe we table this, take it back to Ruth, get her to have those affidavits done. And really because we don't have I spoke to Tammy Smith today. We don't have the Democrat one. Um we don't have a name yet. We're kind of at a standstill anyway.

Yeah. I mean they but you know I if I have this if anybody needs it I mean I can email it to the full board the whole um but yeah I think we should table it. I don't like to table things, but I'm going to make a motion that we take this. I'll second the motion. There's been a motion. May I have a second? I'll second the motion. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed.

I see. All right, move on to item 11, which is committee reports. Anybody else have any updates through the committees? Yes, sir.

Just a couple things. Um, we did have a couple bids for a vehicle for the sheriff's department and we received uh we we awarded that to the highest bidder out of two biders. So, we moved that vehicle. the old Bravvada that's been around for a while. We did not catch a bid a second time. We voted to bid it out one last time and try to make it more public. U there is not a minimum bid on this vehicle at all and it is a running vehicle and we can't catch a dollar bid on this vehicle. So, we're going to try to do a better job of uh you know, putting on Facebook or whatever and getting the word out more than just a little thing in the newspaper, but um we're going to try one more time to to bid that vehicle out.

Okay. Thank you. Any other committee updates?

Um the board of health met last week. Um they the health department was able to secure a grant for a new generator. It's going to provide more power to all of it and it will also cover it at the air conditioning unit at the health department if the power goes out. The one that they have currently now will do the heat and the basic electricity, but it's not big enough to um power the air conditioner. So, they secured this grant. They're getting this new generator and they're also going to send part of the company that's going to install it is going to move the old generator to animal control. So now animal control is going to have a generator in the event of a electrical. So it's good that we were able to reuse something rather than just let it go to waste to scrap.

Yeah. So congratulations to Steve and Angela for working together on that.

Yeah. I think it kind of got the notes that they said they were going to be able to get that moving. So, all right. So, for the budget audit legislative committee, we did meet here might have been early last week to um discuss a couple of things. Um one being the single audit for fiscal year 23. Um we had an item on there to discuss and vote to send it to the board. I was advised by the auditors we didn't need to send it to the full board for approval. So um there were anything taken but the the findings in the single audit as well as the findings in the full fiscal year 23 audit um were divided up amongst some of the committee members. Um couple of the the findings here were grant administration which was also uh quite a few of the findings in the single audit um will be worked on um the outstanding check write off policy capital asset policy fund balance policy and the funds over budget. So the committee will um they've been divided up. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the committee members assigned reaches out to another board member to to assist in this just for familiarity with the process as well as some additional insight and to help pick up on some of the heavy lifting because some of these might take a little bit to to build. Um so we have committed to getting policies written where we were requested to write policies and investigate the things that we were requested to investigate. But um I will work with the clerk and we'll get the single audit out to the full board um to to review as well and get it published out there. Um and I believe it's being put into the portal. So any other questions or comments on committee reports?

Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item 12, uh general appointments. Um they are as follows. Cooperative Extension Committee for a one-year term for Christine Matlock as well as a one-year term for James Mitchell and a one-year term for Tim Morris and for Shville Fire. Uh Penny Stannifer, trustee for a three-year term by resolution, Tower Hill Fire. Michael Norm, trustee for three-year term by resolution. Have a motion on these items, please. Mr. Greg back, Mr. Price. Any question, discussions follow the appointments?

Um, I'd like to discuss my friend Jim Mitchell. He is a friend. I I have nothing against Jim, but he's never here. He's been on the board, I believe, for about a year. Um, and again, I'm I'm not mad at Jim. I I hold nothing against him, but he's never here at the board meeting. So I have to ask how active is he going to be on the top cooperative extension committee. I don't know how involved he's been on the committee at this point.

Thank you Mr. Questions taking Are we voting for all of them or one at a time? All okay. Do you want to pull one out, vote on separately? Um, I guess I'll vote no for all of them if that's how we're voting. All right. All those in favor say I. Opposed. I'm opposed. Passes.

Uh, chairman updates correspondence. Okay, move on. Any old business? Move on to item 15, approval of the claims. Do I have a motion to approve claims? Miss Wood, Mr. Pritchard. Any anything from finance? Not here. Just a quick question. Have the have the checks been signed already? Thank you. Anything else? No, it's all good. Anybody seeing none, roll call, please. Brown, yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes.

Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. Mayhal, yes. Miller, yes. Mors, yes. Price, yes. Pritchard, yes. Stroll, yes. Tate, yes. Wford, yes. Wood, yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Move on to item 16. Public body comment. Public body comment.

Yeah, chairman. I'll ask one more time. Are you willing to acknowledge whether you did or did not issue an endorsement letter using the county seals? I'm willing to acknowledge yes or no. Are you ever going to answer my foyer request? You want to go to comment one time?

Two public comments on the agenda item. I'm addressing it under the second was recognized by the county chair. Correct. Appreciate your nonresponse. Chairman expected. You done?

Yes, sir. Yeah. Um I just wonder if anybody's heard um there's some legislators talking about um passing a bill that renewable energies can uh raise their rates uh without a cap and they're thinking about putting that in the law. That's something to think about. You know, when we think about most like CIPS or anybody else, they can only like 2 or 3%. And these guys are going to get to raise their rates any any amount they want if if this is passed. It doesn't sound very good. Um, public body comment. Public body comment. public comment on 117 motion to journal Mr. Miller. All in favor say I. We are sure that

Yeah. And I I have nothing. Maybe he's got some stuff going on. I get it. And he's I guess he's still on the board.